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After more than a decade of volunteering with the city on several boards and commissions, Virginia Onley finally decided this was the year she would run for City Council.

"It's something that's been in the back of my mind for a long time," Onley, 59, said. The downtown Rockville resident has lived in the Americana Center since 1994 after moving to the county from Libertytown.

"My neighbors always said, ‘Hey, you should run for City council some day,'" she said. "I just never knew when that day would be."

Onley, who has worked at IBM for 34 years, said she brings to the table her experience serving on city boards and commissions.

She stepped down June 1 from her post on the Compensation Commission, which she had been a member of since 1995. But Onley has also served on the Human Rights Commission, which she chaired for one year, on the Rockville Seniors Inc. board of directors and on Rockville Housing Enterprises.

"I just thought it was time to move on, time to do something different," she said of why she stepped down from the Compensation Commission.

Onley said her platform will include a broad range of issues, including affordable housing, senior issues and "green" initiatives.

But before election season gets too far under way, she said she wants to "go to as many HOA meetings and small businesses as possible" and listen to what they want in a candidate.

"I want to listen first," she said.

The most important lesson she said she has learned in her 15 years of service to the city is to really listen to what people have to say.

"Also, you have to make decisions that are for the betterment of the people you're serving," she said. "Human nature is to want it your way. But when you hold elected office, the most important thing you can do for the people who put you in that position is to think of the betterment of those people."

Onley already has a mantra to govern by: "As I've gone from board to commission, I've learned that if you can stay focused on what's best for the people you're representing, that equates to success."

-Residence: Downtown Rockville

-Age: 59

-Top Issues: Affordable housing, senior citizens, ‘green' initiatives

-Contact: dareonley@yahoo.com

Correction: Virginia Olney worked at IBM for 34 years, not IMB.